04 November 2009

Over-logging? Am I killing my forest of free time?

Hi there, we've hit another Day 10 entry and I figured instead of keeping this on my to-do list all day, I'd clear this out of the way before I head into the deep end of all my work for the day.

I've recently discovered that my love for logging things has grown a bit more. Now I even log how much I sleep using YawnLog. Why you ask? Just because I'm curious. I'm curious as to how my sleeping, eating, exercise, work habits affect my mood. I mean sure, it's going to be a rare occasion I actually take all my logs and put them together and go "hmm, so why was I tired last night at 7pm? Oh, it's because I ate 300 calories worth of carbs at 5pm, was working on 6 hours of sleep and had been up since 7am, so it was time to take a nap because it was 12 hours from the mid-point of my sleep. Not to mention I had worked out over 60 minutes which probably brought my cortisol levels a bit too high and that unnecessary cup of coffee during the client meeting at 4pm probably gave me a caffeine crash at 5pm." Sure.

But I guess it's because I'd rather have the chance of that analysis ever happening than to be happy with the response of "I don't know, I'm just tired because I am!"

However, I've recently noticed that the amount of time I spend on logging things has gotten more and more and even though I've made everything quicker, it still requires that same amount of time as before. Hmm.

The reasoning behind all this, for me at least, is because I'd rather have that thought/idea/information somewhere than in my past only. Another reason is because the #1 idol of Yours Truly, ol' Leonardo Da Vinci wrote everything down. He externalized his thoughts and well, being one of his fans, I've learned to do the same.

I really wish I could ask Leonardo if he felt the same way that sometimes he was spending so much time writing things, he didn't have much time to just... relax. I guess life was different back then, at least he wouldn't be bombarded with phone calls, emails, drilling from the people upstairs, etc. during the day, so all the other time he had that didn't involve him writing everything down was free time. Hmm.

On another note, I sometimes do feel logging things also drag me down because I can't just let things slip by. And in turn, it annoys me when people forget things you expect they'd remember to do. I have this problem sometimes with my band mates where we'd discuss about something and a week later, they'd come back and tell me "oops, I forgot!" In fact, I've found that if you tell someone to do something and if they didn't write it down somewhere at that moment, chances are they're not going to do it. I'm not doubting everyone's memory, but it's just something I've grown to accept as reality. So whenever I see someone isn't writing down what I told them, and if I really wanted them to do it, I'd tell them again via email or SMS or some black-and-white form which acts as them having written it down somewhere that doesn't require their memory for it to remind them. I don't trust the human memory enough. As I've said many, many times before, I feel the brain's main task is not to remember, but to think. In the process of thinking, we have to use recollection, but not as a means to think. We should not think because we remembered something, we should remember something because we were thinking of something.

Any thoughts on that (if you suddenly remember something while pondering about that, you're welcome ;P)?

One confession, my 6am's have gotten worse recently with today being the ultimate worst of the worst with me waking up at 9:34am! Yikes! I woke up and within minutes the drilling from upstairs began and my peaceful awake time was ruined. I've grown to really appreciate that 1 - 2 hours of peace I get before the phone calls, emails, drilling, interruptions begin. I've learnt to accept that interruptions are part of a freelancer's life and so I've tried to find ways to push that to later. I mean, many people would wake up, go to work and then after work tend to their own interests. I've found that it's better to reverse it because once I've tended to myself in the morning, say practiced my drums or gone for a work out, I'm able to concentrate on my work better because work seems to be the only things left on my list. So I don't feel drained halfway through the day and feel too frustrated to practice the drums or something. Which is why the 6ams were so perfect. I'd wake up, I'd have 1 good hour to log and plan my day, I'd have another hour to practice my stuff, and 1 hour before people even considered waking up let alone contact me :)

Guess tonight will be the night where I force myself back into bed by 10pm. Fingers crossed! Let's see if I fall off the 6am wagon again in the next 10 days! Hmm...

26 Comments:

I just happen to listen to an archived radio show from Commercial Radio back in August 2008, which you were the guest and Sandra Ng Kwan Yu was the host.

Pretty good stuff, man. You have a good sense of humor, especially toward your race. Do you find it easier to "blend in" to the society? I was born and raised in Hong Kong and now working in the U.S. I often make jokes about myself being Chinese.

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